Project Specific Tables

[tretcher]

Hello,

Our company operates in the construction industry. I am still learning Access 2016 and need some help with creating an specification system for our projects. We are needing to create a "Mothership" database that includes historical materials and specifications. Off that sheet, we will want to pick & choose which materials are being used for a particular project. The goal is to efficiently generate a report that we can provide to both production teams and clients showing specific materials being used on their project - without having to reinvent the wheel with each new project.

My thoughts were to create additional data bases off our "Mothership" to separate Appliances, Plumbing, Interior Walls, etc. However, I feel that I would be fragmenting our data too much.



If there is anybody that could help or has experience with Microsoft Access within the construction industry, I would really like to get in touch. I am hoping to develop this system without having to hire an outside consultant

Let me know if you need additional information or if my explanation is too unclear.

Any help is much appreciated!

[orange]

Wow. What is your current strategy to identify specifications?
How do you plan to design, test and develop such a database?
What do you do currently for Projects, quotations, work assignments, invoicing....?
Is this all within your scope?

Do yourself a favor---learn some data base concepts; familiarize yourself with these by building some sample databases and working through some tutorials.
Do NOT jump into Access without some knowledge of Database design,normalization and data modeling.
Review tutorials/videos on systems analysis, facts gathering and specifications writing.

Do you have a timeframe for this project?
Who is/are the intended users of this application?


Regarding

I feel that I would be fragmenting our data too much.

You can always summarize some facts into meaningful groups ( or sub projects) but getting the details down on paper, and working from a point of knowledge (rather than blind/brute force) is preferable.

You might try watching some free video tutorials by Dr.Daniel Soper that will help you with the concepts.

Intro to Database
The Relational Model
Data Modelling and the ER Model

Here is a different set of videos by a different presenter to complement those above.
These are free youtube videos from Mark Serva that deal with entity relationships, modelling, cardinality, ....
The playlist is listed here.

There are a number of free youtube tutorials/videos on business analysis by BA_Experts. They tend to be short, very factual and relevant with a bit of humor. Spend some time with them.
Here is an example.

Good luck with your project.

[tretcher]

Thank you very much for the help! I have listed reply items to your questions. Will be sure to take all of your advice into consideration.

Wow. What is your current strategy to identify specifications?
How do you plan to design, test and develop such a database?
What do you do currently for Projects, quotations, work assignments, invoicing....? Young company...so some of this is still being developed. We use Microsoft Excel to create Build of Materials, ROM's, and general estimating documents. Using Excel takes a lot of legwork and we noticed that utilizing Access could make our processes much more efficient.
Is this all within your scope? Helping our production partners develop specification sheets and Scope of Work documents falls within our list of services. We are NOT the production team, but serve as a liaison between GC's, Developers, Architects.

Do yourself a favor---learn some data base concepts; familiarize yourself with these by building some sample databases and working through some tutorials.
Do NOT jump into Access without some knowledge of Database design,normalization and data modeling.
Review tutorials/videos on systems analysis, facts gathering and specifications writing. Definitely...There is a lot to navigate in this program and educating myself in this space is a priority.

Do you have a timeframe for this project? As soon as possible. If we have a way to efficiently store historical data and create clean reports then it will dramatically improve our probability to win.
Who is/are the intended users of this application? Project Managers/Estimators. We have a few on our team that will be using the software. One of which, is familiar with Access and has much more estimating experience than myself.


Regarding

You can always summarize some facts into meaningful groups ( or sub projects) but getting the details down on paper, and working from a point of knowledge (rather than blind/brute force) is preferable. Good idea... We are still working on the philosophy so may be ahead of ourselves.

You might try watching some free video tutorials by Dr.Daniel Soper that will help you with the concepts.

Intro to Database
The Relational Model
Data Modelling and the ER Model

Here is a different set of videos by a different presenter to complement those above.
These are free youtube videos from Mark Serva that deal with entity relationships, modelling, cardinality, ....
The playlist is listed here.

There are a number of free youtube tutorials/videos on business analysis by BA_Experts. They tend to be short, very factual and relevant with a bit of humor. Spend some time with them.
Here is an example.

Good luck with your project.